The London Guantánamo has been campaigning since 2006 for the return of all British residents from the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, the release of all prisoners, the closure of this prison and other similar prisons and an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition. Human rights for all.

The launch was attended by
politicians including MP Caroline Lucas and Shaker Aamer’s lawyer Clive
Stafford-Smith from Reprieve.

On the same day, Reprieve announced
that it plans to sue the British government for not doing enough to bring
Shaker Aamer back to the UK. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office continues to
insist that it is doing all it can. This is in spite of the release this month
of 6 other prisoners, including one Saudi national, and the planned release of
at least 4 others, and the “special relationship” between Britain and the US.

On 25 November, the Save Shaker Aamer
Campaign held a parliamentary meeting to discuss Shaker Aamer’s case. The meeting
was very well attended and discussed ways of working towards the release of Shaker
Aamer to the UK.

Both events mark the 13th
year since Shaker Aamer was captured in November 2001 in Afghanistan. He has
never been charged or tried and has been cleared for release on several
occasions since 2007.

NEWS:

Guantánamo Bay:

On 5 November, Kuwaiti Fawzi Al-Odah, 37, became only the second
low-level prisoner to be released from Guantánamo this year, bringing the total
number of prisoners released in 2014 to 7 and the remaining number of prisoners
to 148. He is also the first person cleared by a periodic review board to be
released since Barack Obama restarted the process at the end of 2013. Periodic
reviews are carried out on the status of “forever prisoners”, the 40-odd
prisoners who cannot be charged or tried but are also deemed too dangerous for
release. Following his review in the summer, he was cleared for release but fellow
Kuwaiti prisoner Fayiz Al-Kandari, held for a similar period of time, was
deemed too dangerous to release, demonstrating the arbitrary nature of the
administrative review process. Al-Odah’s release also came one day after
mid-term elections in the US leading a big swing to the right-wing Republican
Party and heralding the last two years of Obama’s presidency. The campaign for
the release of Fayiz Al-Kandari.

On 20 November, 5 prisoners who have long been cleared for release but cannot be returned to their own countries were released. Four Yemenis and a Tunisian national were released, two of whom are now being resettled in Slovakia and three in Georgia. It is the first time the US has released Yemeni prisoners from Guantánamo since 2010. They make up the majority of prisoners who have been cleared for release but remain held there. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/20/us-usa-guantanamo-release-idUSKCN0J42ML201411200n 22 November, Saudi national Muhammad Murdi Issa al-Zahrani, who was cleared by the period review board in October, was sent back to Saudi Arabia where he will undergo a rehabilitation programme. Accused of links to Al Qaeda, the board said that such links could not be proven.http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/22/us-usa-guantanamo-prisoner-idUSKCN0J60HD20141122There are currently 142 prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay and there are currently plans to release at least 4 more in the coming weeks.

A 2-day pre-trial hearing was held in the case of Abd Al-Nashiri on 5-6
November during which his lawyers sought to have hearsay statements made by him
and others linking him to the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole withdrawn on the
basis that these statements were obtained through the use of torture, in particular
when he “disappeared” into CIA torture prisons. Lawyers for Al-Nashiri also
asked for the death penalty to be reconsidered in the sentence for his case and
raised the issue of the inadequate medical and psychiatric care Al-Nashiri has
received considering his ordeal.

On 12 November, in a case before the US federal courts concerning the
legality of the panel of judges in Al-Nashiri’s case, the 3 judges stayed the
government’s appeal in the case but ruled that it did not have the jurisdiction
to hear cases related to military commissions at Guantánamo Bay. The
administrative case deals with constitutional issues.

On 7 November, a case brought by hunger-striking Syrian prisoner Abu Wa’el
Dhiab for major changes to be made to the force-feeding regime he and his lawyers
argue is tantamount to torture was rejected by the judge Gladys Kessler. While
she criticised the US government’s action in the abusive methods used in force-feeding
prisoners against their will and transporting them to the feeding room, she
sided with the government and appeared convinced by its arguments that the
changes sought are actually more detrimental and not more humane to prisoners. Lawyers
for Dhiab have said they may appeal.

This ruling does not impact her earlier ruling ordering the US
government to disclose videos showing the force-feeding of prisoners.

In a case brought by the family of Pakistani prisoner Ghulam Rabbani,
the High Court in Islamabad, Pakistan, has ordered the ministers of interior,
defence and foreign affairs to appear before the court in a petition that they
must take immediate action for the repatriation of Rabbani, who has never been
charged or tried to the country. According to admissions made by former president
Parvez Musharraf in a book, he handed over more than 350 Pakistanis to the US
government, of whom Rabbani was one such person. His family says he was kidnapped
by Pakistani intelligence officers and handed over to the US in December 2001. He
was tortured in Pakistan and then taken to Afghanistan where he was tortured at
various US-run prisons before being taken to Guantánamo in 2004.

In a hearing before a military commission for Abd
al Hadi al-Iraqi, one of the last prisoners to arrive at Guantánamo in
2007, his lawyers argued for all charges against him to be acquitted on the
basis that he should be classified a soldier under international laws of war
and thus exempt from prosecution as a “lawful combatant”. The US government lawyer,
however, considered him a terrorist who should be prosecuted. He is facing a
life sentence on charges of organizing attacks on coalition forces in his
adopted Afghanistan.

In a separate
claim, his lawyers have asked the judge for him not to be shackled or handled
by female soldiers and only male soldiers.

On 4 November, a Russian national, known as Irek Ilgiz Hamidullin, was
indicted before a court in Virginia on charges of coordinating attacks on US
troops in Afghanistan. He had been captured in Afghanistan in 2009 and was held
secretly in Bagram for 5 years before being transferred to the US in October.He is accused of being a member of the Taliban. One of dozens of
foreigners held secretly at Bagram, his identity and the fact that he was held
there for 5 years without charge were only disclosed recently. Given that like
most Bagram prisoners, he is likely to have been tortured, the success of this
civil caseremains to be seen.

In November, the United States came before the United Nations Committee
Against Torture at its 53rd session in Geneva. Among other issues,
such as the use of solitary confinement, police torture and the death penalty,
the US was asked about torture at Guantánamo Bay and in the extraordinary
rendition programme. The US admitted that it had used torture and that the UN
Torture Convention applies at Guantánamo Bay but sought to defend its actions.
One of the persons giving evidence at the hearing was former prisoner Murat
Kurnuz from Germany who spoke about his five years as a prisoner. His testimony
can be read here: https://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/former-guantanamo-detainee-addresses-un-committee-against-torture-ask-u.s.-accountability-and-closur

Following a decision in the case of Libyan Abdel Hakim Belhaj last month, stating that he could sue British officials for their involvement in his torture and rendition, dismissing government claims that such a case could undermine diplomatic relations with the US and secrecy, the High Court has ruled to allow former Bagram prisoner Pakistani Yunus Rahmatullah to sue British officials after he was "rendered" to the US military in Iraq in 2004 by the British army. The US military then held him and tortured him at Bagram for over 10 years until he was released earlier this year. He was never charged or tried. His case also affects claims made by three other men in Iraq, including one who was held at Abu Ghraib. The British government has said it will challenge both the Belhaj and Rahmatullah rulings in the Supreme Court.http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/nov/19/man-allegedly-tortured-us-ulk-troops-wins-right-sue-damages

LGC Activities:

The November “Shut
Guantánamo!” demonstration was attended by 4 people. The December demonstration
will be at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner,
Marble Arch on Thursday 4th December: https://www.facebook.com/events/558851547591991/

We are currently in
the process of organising our action to mark 13 years of Guantánamo in January.
As always, we aim to protest creatively. We will need volunteers to make our
action a reality. In particular, we are looking for actors (amateur or
professional) to play journalists and Barack Obama, reading out real texts of
speeches about Guantánamo, film makers and photographers and other forms of
help in the run up to the event and on the day. Please get in touch if you’d
like to help out or want more details.

Friday, October 31, 2014

In early October, an important court case was held in a US federal court
in Washington on the legality of the force-feeding regime for hunger-striking
prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. Just days before the hearing before the court in
which lawyers for hunger-striking Syrian prisoner Abu Wa’el Dhiab and lawyers
for the US government presented their arguments, Judge Gladys
Kessler rejected a plea by the US government to have the hearing held in secret
on the grounds of national security. She stated in a written ruling that “With such a longstanding and ongoing public interest at stake, it
would be particularly egregious to bar the public from observing the
credibility of live witnesses, the substance of their testimony, whether proper
procedures are being followed, and whether the court is treating all
participants fairly”

The judge also ordered that 20 videotapes showing the force-feeding
procedure being administered to prisoners be released by the US military. The military
only admitted the existence of the tapes earlier in these proceedings but has
refused to allow the court to see them.

The hearing started on 6 October, during which his lawyers argued that
the force-feeding is a form of torture and not a medical procedure, as claimed
by the US administration. They also challenged the violent way in which
prisoners are taken and prepared for force-feeding. Although several sessions
of the 3-day hearing were held in closed court, important information about hunger
strikes at Guantánamo Bay has emerged, such as the fact that six prisoners were
on permanent hunger strike between 2007 and the start of the current hunger
strike in February 2013, or even longer.

The judge gave the US military until 17 October to release videotapes,
however just days before that, it was rumoured that the government might appeal
this decision and instead a 30-day extension was given to release the tapes.

Later in October, news organisations added to the pressure for the tapes
to be released as did Democrat congressmen Raul
Grijalva and Keith Ellison in a letter to Barack Obama calling the secrecy
surrounding the videotapes “contrary to American laws or values” and stating
that “The facts pertaining to these practices at Guantánamo should be available
to members of Congress”.

Dhiab was cleared for released in 2009, has never been charged or tried,
and is currently awaiting release to Uruguay, as one of six prisoners the country’s
government has agreed to accept.

In the military commission case of Saudi Abd Al-Nashiri, a request made
in August for an MRI brain scan to see if he has organic brain damage was
turned down by Judge Spath on the basis that he felt the medical care at Guantánamo
is adequate and a proper administrative request had not been made by his
lawyers. He did not mention that the requisite medical equipment was not
available at the base.

With new briefs filed by both sides in the case, the next oral hearing in the case will
be held on 13 November.

Estonia has agreed to resettle one of the 79 prisoners who have been
cleared for release but cannot return home. It did not say which prisoner it
would accept and in the past has said it would not take Guantánamo prisoners

On 22 October, the appeal case of Ali Hamza Al-Bahlul, currently serving
a life sentence at Guantánamo Bay, was heard by a panel of 3 judges at the DC
Circuit Court after it was sent back there following a decision overturning two
of his convictions, for material support of terrorism and solicitation in July, for
consideration on the outstanding issue of conspiracy. In the original appeal
hearing, all three convictions were overturned but the US government was
granted a rehearing en banc (by all 7 judges at the court). This panel
sent back four issues related to conspiracy to the original panel of judges to
consider. During the oral hearing, lawyers for Al-Bahlul argued that the military
commission procedure was unconstitutional and discriminatory. If the arguments
put forward by his lawyers are accepted, and the conspiracy charge overturned,
it would also overturn other convictions and end pending trials, unless
appealed at the Supreme Court. A decision is expected in the next few months.

The periodic review board has cleared one Saudi prisoner for release and
ordered the continuing detention of another Saudi prisoner. Muhammad Abd Al-Rahman Awn Al-Shamrani, who refused to take part in
his review in May, is still considered a risk and was associated with Al Qaeda
and the Taliban in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. A second man, Muhammad Murdi
Issa al-Zahrani, was cleared for transfer. Although several prisoners have been
cleared for transfer since the process restarted over the past year or so none
of those cleared have been transferred anywhere.

In a court case originally brought against the Canadian government in
2004 when he was still held at Guantánamo Bay, for the Canadian government’s
complicity in his abuse, a federal judge in Canada has ruled that Omar Khadr
can widen the scope of his original case, suing the Canadian government for $20
million and claim that the Canadian government conspired with the US.

The government has asked for the claims in the case, which was reopened
by his lawyers last year, to be dismissed but the judges asked for the new
claims to be rewritten rather than rejected. He stated “Whether Canada conspired with foreign officials to violate the
fundamental rights of a citizen is not a trivial matter” and that whether or
not the conspiracy charge could stand was a matter for the trial judge to
decide. He awarded costs in the case to Khadr’s lawyers as the Canadian
government had “"considerably increased the costs and delay" of the
action by opposing the lawsuit amendments, almost all of which he allowed.”

Although banned from speaking to the media, on 28 October, a week after
an attack on a Canadian soldier and proposals to push through strict new
security laws by the Canadian government in response, Omar Khadr had his first
opportunity to address Canadians in his own words in an op-ed published in the Ottawa
Citizen entitled “Khadr: Misguided security laws take a human toll”. In an
intelligent and thoughtful article, Khadr states “I
will not give up. I have a fundamental right to redress for what I have
experienced. But this isn’t just about me. I want accountability to ensure others
will be spared the torment I have been through; and the suffering I continue to
endure.”

The trial of Abu Anas Al-Libi, who was kidnapped in Libya a year ago and
rendered to the US, was due to start in early November. In early October,
Al-Libi asked the judge to suppress statements he made between the time he was
kidnapped and when he later appeared in the US on that basis that he feels that
those statements were coerced. He was not given legal representation, did not
know where he was being held and thought he was going to be taken to Guantánamo
Bay. As a result, he had signed a form waiving his legal rights, which he has
since retracted. He had been told at the time that he would be held and
interrogated on the US military ship he was aboard for over four months. Although
he does not claim to have been physically tortured, he was under great
psychological pressure.

He pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy in the bombing of two US
embassies in Africa in 1998, which killed over 200 people. The hearing has now
been put back until January 2015 to give defence lawyers additional time to
prepare, including evidence from the UK. Al-Libi’s co-defendant Khaled
al-Fawwaz was extradited from the UK in October 2012. A third defendant in the
case, Adel Abdul Bary, also extradited from the UK in 2012, pleaded guilty in September
and faces a sentence of 25 years.

Poland has lodged an appeal against a ruling in July made by the
European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which found the country complicit
in the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme, by hosting a torture facility. Prisoners
held there included current Guantánamo prisoners Abu Zubaydah and Abd
Al-Nashiri. The appeal is reported to be based on procedural grounds.

A Russian prisoner held at Bagram since 2009, known only as “Irek Hamidullan”,
has been taken to the US where he is to face a terrorism trial on unspecified
charges. He is alleged to have been involved in attacks on Americans prior to
his capture. This is the first time a prisoner held in Afghanistan is being
taken to the US. He is among a group of 13 foreign nationals known to be held
by the US at the Parwan facility at Bagram without charge or trial. In 2015,
the US must hand over control of prison facilities to the Afghan authorities.

On 30 October, the Court of Appeal ruled that Abdul Hakim
Belhaj and his wife, who were rendered to Libya in 2004 from SE Asia with the assistance
of the intelligence services, can sue the UK government. He brought a case against
former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who had previously denied any knowledge of
his case, and MI6 for complicity in their rendition, which came to light in
documents found in a government building in Tripoli following the Arab Spring
there in 2011. The High Court had ruled the case could not be heard as it could
damage foreign relationships with the US. However, the appeal court judges said
a court should hear them. Jack Straw and the government have been given leave
to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The October “Shut
Guantánamo!” demonstration was attended by 7 people. The LGC is grateful to London
Catholic Worker for joining us at this demonstration. The November demonstration
will be at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner,
Marble Arch on Thursday 6th November: https://www.facebook.com/events/558851547591991/

Thanks to
Voices for Creative Non-Violence UK for allowing Val Brown to hold a stall to
raise awareness about the plight of Guantánamo prisoners at the conference “Afghanistan
– The Forgotten War: Britain’s Legacy” on Saturday 11th October. Speakers
at the conference focused on Britain’s military legacy and ongoing involvement,
including the environmental impact of war and weapons, the ongoing lethal use
of drones and the impact financially and on British armed forces. A report of
the interesting and successful conference can be read here: http://onesmallwindow.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/britains-legacy-the-forgotten-war-in-afghanistan/

On 16 October, Aisha
Maniar joined John Rees on the Islam Channel’s “The Report” news programme to
talk about the ongoing hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay and the struggle to
release videotapes showing prisoners being force-fed.

Many thanks to
students from Queen Mary University of London’s Amnesty Society for inviting us
on 21 October to take part in a talk on torture alongside a speaker from
Amnesty International UK’s current ongoing campaign on the theme. Aisha Maniar
spoke to around 50 students about the history of Guantánamo, now almost in its
13th year of operation, as well as the truth and lies surrounding
the prisoners, the legality of Guantánamo detention and the use of torture. Short
workshops were also held to discuss some of the issues raised.

On 6th November,
the LGC will hold a planning meeting for our January anniversary demonstration
at 6:30pm in the café in Friend’s House, Euston Road (opposite Euston station).
We are currently in the process of planning its action to mark the 13th
anniversary of Guantanamo opening in January 2015 and as usual WE need YOUR
help to make it happen. We are holding a meeting on 6 November. Please get in
touch or join us if you’d like to be involved.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

A US navy nurse who refused to force feed hunger striking prisoners at
Guantánamo is continuing to face persecution from the US military. Although the
military decided not to court martial him for his actions, thereby not making
any details of the hunger strike and the feeding procedure public, as would
result from a trial, he faces disciplinary measures, which could include him
losing his job and his benefits. The nurse’s humane gesture came to light
earlier this year when a hunger-striking prisoner wrote to his lawyer praising
the nurse’s action.

On 15 September, pre-trial hearings started in the case of Abdel Hadi
Al-Iraqi who faces a life sentence for war crimes; he is alleged to be a senior
Al Qaeda commander and to have organised attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan in
2003 and 2004 that killed allied soldiers. He was one of the last prisoners to
be brought to Guantánamo in 2007, and had prior to that, after his arrest in
2006, “disappeared” into secret CIA torture prisons.

At the hearing, Al-Iraqi met his military lawyer for the first time. Although
his previous lawyer was dismissed, he is still also seeking a civilian lawyer
to work on his case, which he is not automatically entitled to, as he is not
facing capital charges. At the hearing, the prosecution asked for all details
relating to his interrogation to be kept secret. Although the prosecution
claims he was not subject to “enhanced interrogation methods”, such as
waterboarding, it said it was up to the CIA to say what could be disclosed.

Three prisoners,
Saeed Mohammed Saleh Hatim, Abdurrahman al-Shubati and Fadel Hentif, have
applied for an en banc rehearing of a case that was decided by a US federal
court of appeal at the beginning of August, ruling that military guards at Guantánamo Bay can carry out intimate physical
searches of prisoners, lifting a previous ban. The court had held that the
action was not unconstitutional. Counsel for the three prisoners is asking for
the case to be heard by all the judges at the same court and questions the interpretation
applied by the court.

Lawyers for Canadian former prisoner Omar Khadr headed to the Canadian
federal courts in early September to resume a case that was stalled in December
last year when the judge said that the lawsuit, first brought suing the
Canadian government for involvement in Khadr’s torture in 2004 when he was still
held at Guantánamo, had to be rewritten. It was resubmitted and Khadr’s lawyers
sought to expand the claims against the Canadian government to include
conspiracy by Canada with the US in the abuse of his rights and his torture. Lawyers
for the Canadian government said that under Canadian federal law, the US
government could not be brought into a civil claim and that this issue could be
dealt with under the existing claims. The judge reserved judgment on the case.

While Uruguay waits to receive the 6 Guantánamo prisoners it has said it
will take as refugees, the government of Peru has ruled out taking any Guantánamo
prisoners, following a US request. http://www.peruviantimes.com/19/peru-says-no-to-guantanamo-prisoners/22916/
The Chilean government has also said that taking Guantánamo prisoners “is not a
priority” for the country after weighing up a similar request.

Lawyers for the US government are seeking to keep proceedings secret in
a court hearing to be held in early October concerning the force feeding of
hunger-striking prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. The lawyers claim that it is a
matter of national security. The case brought by Syrian hunger striker Abu Wael
Dhiab concerns the methods used against the prisoners and the forced feeding
against their will to keep them alive. This is illegal, when carried out on a
rational prisoner, almost everywhere else in the world. Earlier this year, an
emergency injunction to halt his force feeding was soon overturned but the
government was asked to disclose tapes showing the force feeding. While lawyers
on both sides will be heard at the hearing, US government lawyers are seeking
to keep the public and the media out.

The US released 14 Pakistani prisoners from Bagram prison in Afghanistan.
Although it handed authority over the prison to the Afghan authorities last
year, the US has maintained control over up to 60 foreign nationals, mainly Pakistanis.
This is the largest group of prisoners, who have less rights than Guantánamo
prisoners, to be released in one go. Over the past year, 39 Pakistanis are known
to have been released from Bagram, in most cases only to face further
persecution once back in their own country. Two Yemenis and a Kazakh prisoner
were also released last month. The actual number of prisoners and the
conditions and reasons for their detention are highly guarded secrets by the US
military.

With the US officially ending its involvement in the war in Afghanistan
at the end of this year, even though it plans to keep 10,000 troops there, the
future of the remaining Bagram prisoners remains unknown. Transfer to Guantánamo
is unlikely but the US intends to maintain control over them.

The September “Shut
Guantánamo!” demonstration was attended by 8 people. The October demonstration
will be at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy and 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner,
Marble Arch on Thursday 2nd October: https://www.facebook.com/events/1446269325597802/

As part of a government consultation on anti-terrorism
laws, one of our activists recently corresponded with David Anderson QC, the
government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, about Shaker Aamer:
http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/david-anderson-qc-shaker-aamer-and-anti.html
Their correspondence and Anderson’s referral to sources that suggest practices
that would be illegal in this country, such as prolonged detention without
trial or charge, speak volumes about the government’s actual attitude to
Guantánamo prisoners such as Mr Aamer.

The IRCT in
Copenhagen, which coordinates the actions worldwide on International Day in
Support of Victims of Torture on 26 June, published its annual report of
actions and features our London action on pages 34-35:

Take action!

We hold a regular monthly demonstration calling for the closure of Guantánamo Bay. Our March demonstration is on Thursday 8 March at 12-2pm outside the US Embassy, 33 Nine Elms Ln, London SW11 7US: https://www.facebook.com/events/975903689224552/

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About Me

The London Guantánamo Campaign has been campaigning since 2006 for the return of all British residents from the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, the release of all prisoners, the closure of this prison and other similar prisons and an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition. Also on Facebook and Twitter.